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Interesting Point Made Post match by PB

With 6, now 5 games left is it possible to change things in such short a period ?
PBs win rate was 39% when last at Southend not up into the 40%s.
Someone oh here posted a pic of PB and tagged it “Old Sokol” and there’s the point the players aren’t they are for the current era , an era where they will be aware of being in the red zone or operating different diet regimes love or hate sports science it’s embedded in modern football
Of course MM would be making the sort of comments re being happy about attacking options he had his hands tied irrespective the modern footballer is rarely motivated by a critical coach in public.
 
Of course PB is in a way way worse position- as you say one win in ten, goals threat dried up at an alarming rate, as you say no transfer window, and 6 games to change the approach and mentality.
Let’s face it neither was given the ideal preparation or time.
Whoever is in charge next season let’s hope they get a chance to work with players, get their own faces in early and have a decent pre season.
 
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Define limited number of goals? By comparison to MM or Sol or? It’s about results in the end which is I think amongst the very first points PB made. I don’t recall those first two and a bit years in L2 involving higher league tactics? I recall pretty ridged 442. In a way though who cares it’s the result that matters and I am sure we would be absolutely delighted if we started scoring at the rate we did previously under PB than we have been.

Actually, for long periods of Phil Brown's first spell in charge, we played 4-5-1 with Barry Corr up front on his own. Even in the 2015 League Two Play-Off Final, that's how we started and it wasn't until the hour mark when Joe Pigott replaced Stephen McLaughlin that it changed. Other times we'd start 4-4-2 and then take off one of the strikers and replace them with Jack Payne if we got ahead (I'm not complaining about that, by the way, because ultimately it was successful). I also remember him being labelled 'Nil Nil Phil' by some.

I seem to remember his tactics being one of the reasons behind Corr's departure, that he didn't like that style of play. Even in 2015/16, there were still plenty of occasions when David Mooney or Tyrone Barnett played as a lone striker, with support from Payne. It wasn't really until 2016/17 that he settled on the 4-4-2 that people remember, with either Simon Cox and Marc-Antoine Fortune or Cox and Nile Ranger up front and Will Atkinson and McLaughlin out wide.

There will probably be plenty of time in the summer to debate ultimately the role Mark Molesley played in either our continuing demise or our plucky escape from relegation. I don't really have a problem if Phil Brown believes Molesley's 'process' or 'project' wasn't the right thing to do; it's his job for six matches to do what he thinks is right to keep us in the Football League, and then in the summer it will either be his or someone else's job to determine what the next process, project or methodology looks like. He could've expressed those views less publicly, but then Brown has always been happy to court the media and make some interesting comments.

Whatever happens, though, at some stage the club has to take stock of where it is and make a decision about where it wants to be in three, five or even ten years' time, and that's why we do require a 'project' and why I'd've stuck with Molesley. It's right that Brown is concentrating on the next month, but short-termism is what has left us in this position. It's why I subscribe to the views of those that believe we desperately require a CEO, because at the moment, we are flip-flopping from one philosophy to the next with no continuity, and it's been that way since Brown departed last time.
 
TBF as they keep saying on BBC Essex radio PB 's got a "free hit" on this one.If he keeps us up he's a hero and obviously nobody can blame him if we don't avoid the drop.The pity is that he wasn't brought in much earlier in the season ie.in January when MM proved himself incapable of turnintg things around.
In hindsight maybe but at the time why would we have sacked MM in January? In December we won 3, drew 2 and lost 1. If we'd sacked MM after those results there would have been outrage.
 
In hindsight maybe but at the time why would we have sacked MM in January? In December we won 3, drew 2 and lost 1. If we'd sacked MM after those results there would have been outrage.

You'll remember PB's Echo interview when he stated that the Chairman had been in touch with him earlier in the season,presumably to take over.Although no timeline was specifically mentioned it's reasonable to think it was about January I think.Depends how you define "mid-way through the season",really.

 
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There is every chance PB made those comments as a reference point. For instance if he keeps us up (fingers crossed) he can then claim he personally transformed a team in a desperate position and using "foreign" methods into a team of survivors with his tried and tested ways.

If we sadly do go down then he can refer back to his statement and say that the "foreign" methods were to ingrained within the players, and nothing short of a complete overall of the squad would have saved us.

Will be interesting to see if we rekindle our interest in someone like Jay Simpson or even Anthony Stokes to try and answer the lack of goals, as I can't see PB risking his reputation on the current bunch of blank shooters. I know we have a full squad, but most are towards the end of their contracts, so reducing the costs of offering early releases etc. Meaning squad spaces could be found. Obviously this approach would require RM's backing, so may not happen. Again if we go down, then PB could add this to his reasons for not being able to work a miracle.

I also would not be surprised, now that they have been elevated to first team duties, Ricky Duncan and Craig Fagan taking over as a management team should we get relegated.
 
PB OS:-
On having enough quality to stay up…

“I think so. There’s enough spirit for sure, there’s enough quality, it’s just the style of play that we’ve got to transform
. The previous incumbent, I’ve got no disrespect for them whatsoever, had a style of play that was completely foreign to me.

“I remember a couple of years back we let Jack Bridge go on loan to Bournemouth, which I thought at the time was a strange thing, but Jack is a technical player. He couldn’t get in the Southend team, but he went on loan to Bournemouth and he came back and told me all about the training sessions and what their philosophy is, and that’s what I’ve witnessed with one or two of these players.

“I can’t change that overnight and I don’t want to change that overnight. I think the technical side of the game shall always be admired from afar and a near, and I’ve admired some of the qualities these players are bringing. But that gritty determination, that steeliness, that resolve that’s required to win a game of football at this level is totally different. That’s what I’ve got to try and get across to them in a short space of time, which is my job next week.”



Good luck Phil.
 
PB OS:-
On having enough quality to stay up…

“I think so. There’s enough spirit for sure, there’s enough quality, it’s just the style of play that we’ve got to transform
. The previous incumbent, I’ve got no disrespect for them whatsoever, had a style of play that was completely foreign to me.

“I remember a couple of years back we let Jack Bridge go on loan to Bournemouth, which I thought at the time was a strange thing, but Jack is a technical player. He couldn’t get in the Southend team, but he went on loan to Bournemouth and he came back and told me all about the training sessions and what their philosophy is, and that’s what I’ve witnessed with one or two of these players.

“I can’t change that overnight and I don’t want to change that overnight. I think the technical side of the game shall always be admired from afar and a near, and I’ve admired some of the qualities these players are bringing. But that gritty determination, that steeliness, that resolve that’s required to win a game of football at this level is totally different. That’s what I’ve got to try and get across to them in a short space of time, which is my job next week.”



Good luck Phil.
Sounds fair enough, really don’t think MM will be the slightest bit offended as any manager will look to change things to get better results in the situation we’re in. My fear is still that MM was working with what we had and already getting the best results out of them.

Hope Brown finds something extra, fast!
 
"that gritty determination, that steeliness, that resolve that’s required to win a game of football"

i really dont think the previous crowd had this ... something about the beards and the notebooks and the hands in pockets..

I do think we have enough quality in the squad ...
 
"that gritty determination, that steeliness, that resolve that’s required to win a game of football at this level is totally different. That’s what I’ve got to try and get across to them in a short space of time, which is my job next week"

That is what I wanted to hear from someone in charge. For me, it has been missing and I felt that we were heading to the NL without so much as a whimper, especially with no fans to try and lift the team. Whatever happens at least now I feel that there will have been no room for complacency in these last few games.
 
In hindsight maybe but at the time why would we have sacked MM in January? In December we won 3, drew 2 and lost 1. If we'd sacked MM after those results there would have been outrage.

Agree, MM wouldn't have gone early January, but by the end of the month, all the positives from December were gone after a really poor month.
 
when the players win he will allow them to eat pizza, fish & chips and various other take aways he did on the bus home.

There is no problem with that, even premier league players eat pizza after games.

I remember Ryan Giggs saying he used to go to McDonalds after a match however that was in the early 90s and to be fair to Man Utd. they have really upped the standard of their role models recently.
 

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